David Jones, the visual artist behind high-quality, fan-produced photos and video like the Arrow Jedi series, delivered something new this weekend in the form of a look at what the opening credits for Arrow might look like, if the show had been produced in 1966 instead of Batman.
Videos by ComicBook.com
Note: The first version of this story neglected to mention Jeff Tasca, who designed the Arrow-66 Logo and Mike Schmidt, who provdied the music. We regret the oversight.
Retaining the look of Green Arrow’s costume, and introducing a supporting cast that includes members of The Flash, Supergirl, and DC’s Legends of Tomorrow, Jones — who has worked with members of The Flash‘s cast and crew on their short film The Letter Carrier — is responsible for bringing new content to The CW’s DC Universe this week, even while all four shows are on hiatus.
Jones said that he had been working on the project for a while, and it wasn’t actually meant to debut when it did.
“I wasn’t planning on pushing to get it done this weekend,” Jones told ComicBook.com. “But I saw Stephen [Amell] tweeted the original Batman 66 spinning logo, so I just had to do it.”
Later, Amell shared Jones’s video via Facebook.
Jones also posted a bit about it on his blog, saying that his inspiration was to celebrate his fiftieth birthday this year — which coincided with 50 years of the Batman TV show.
The animation mimics the style of the classic Batman opening titles, complete with period-appropriate fonts. It was also produced in full frame rather than the widescreen common to today’s superhero TV shows, and given a little bit of that analog fuzz in the video.
“In the Earth-66 Multiverse, The Arrow TV show premiered in 1966 instead of Batman. With his super friends The Flash, Supergirl, and The Legends, Arrow fights crime in Star City against several nefarious foes and bases his operation in the Arrow Cave. Watch his crime-fighting adventures every Wednesday night – same Arrow-Time, same Arrow-Channel!”
Supergirl airs Mondays at 8 p.m. ET/PT; The Flash on Tuesdays at the same time; Arrowon Wednesdays and DC’s Legends of Tomorrow on Thursdays. All four series air on The CW. New episodes return the week of January 24.
